Topic: Pls Help! Car buying advice

[Stephen8991]

Hi,

I'm very interested in a 2013 328i xdrive BMW with 65,000km. The owner said that it was a leased car, and has been well maintained by BMW and by him, and so he says there are no problems with the car.

I am fully aware that BMWs are generally more expensive to fix, but I still expected high quality.

However, I have been reading up on this model, and I cant believe what some owners are reporting. These are issues that I didn't even think existed, especially with BMW.

This is the site I used:
[Removed by moderator]

I have a $500 deposit and am scheduled to buy on Thursday, but I'm legitimately scared of the car now.

Things like:

**Brakes not working at all
-- I thought if you depressed the brakes enough, it would activate mechanically by bypassing the assist

**Randomly accelerating and brakes not working
-- That's just crazy. Imagine your car just speeding up with no control over it. Worse, you can't stop it. That's straight out of a horror movie
I would have never thought this.

**Car locks passengers into car and can't get out.

**Transmission can't give power and stops working.

**Complete engine replacement

Should I stop the sale?? Is this just a very small portion of 328i's?? I feel so disappointed in BMW right now. This isn't about expensive fixes, this is complete unreliability.

Note: here for a real discussion and not an anti-bmw/pro-toyota thread.

[quadzilla]

If those things scare you then don't buy the car. Seems pretty simple to me.

[Stephen8991]

I think it would and should scare anyone. Accelerating and not being able to brake, for you example.
But there were alot of 328i sold in N. America, and any device will have malfunctions.
When I took a reliability and statistics course, Every production line has a certain, hopefully small % of unreliable end-products.

What I want to know, is it a considerable problem? Every car has a risk not just BMWs, but I just want to know if this is 50% of BMWs, or is it 1% of BMWs. Do alot of BMWs end up as lemons, needing an engine or transmission replacement etc. Etc.

[Serniter]

You may want to look up Consumer Reports recommendations. I believe they use customer surveys to determine reliability.

[lebowski]

In your research, i'm assuming you came across the timing chain issue of many of these earlier x28i engines. That alone would be a dealbreaker for me.

[Neutron]

Thought I'd share my 2 cents here.

You're right in that those things would and should scare almost anybody  ESPECIALLY ON A BMW. They're significantly more expensive to fix and maintain. Now with that said, I can speak for my experience, and looking at what ppl say about the Mazda 3, the worst reports complain of several problems that neither myself nor must of my friends owning the same vehicle (even older model years) know what they're talking about. You're reading what different bmw 3's have suffered from, doesn't mean your car will suffer from all of those combined. The real redflag is when you read many reviews complaining of several crippling problems happening to the same individual vehicle.

BMW isn't known for reliability like Japanese MFRs, but they aren't completely terrible from what I know, and are in fact more reliable than Audis and Mercs according to JD powers and associates (new ones at least). I only buy Japanese cars and maybe Hyundais because reliability and affordable maintenance are 2 very important things for me and if you're in the market for something luxurious and fun then I would pick a Lexus or Infiniti over any German car in a heartbeat, but I think you might want to do more research and ask around before writing off BMW altogether if you're heart is really into it.

Best of luck!